Zatch Bell!: The Second Battle
by Bandit Of The Wind
Summary: Three years after Zatch becomes king, a new mamodo battle begins. Has something happened to Zatch? And will someone take his place as king? Read on! OCs are gladly accepted, but please try to be fair about them.
1. The Child At The Doorstep

Hooray, my second fanfic is up! Hopefully you guys will enjoy it! Please review!

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Chapter 1: The Child at the Doorstep

The rain beat down heavily on the city of Tokyo, wet cold water burning down into anyone walking underneath, an oxymoron in itself. The rain was relentless, sparing no mercy for its victims. Several people staggered through the harsh weather, clad in raincoats, or hiding in the protection of an umbrella. The people all seemed lifeless, not showing any emotion, except sadness, which the rain usually brought with it. No one spoke; no one ran, no one yelled for taxis, nothing. It was silent, and the rain beating down burned loudly into everyone's ears. 

A lone child wandered through the rain, trying to block out the sound of the rain mocking him, laughing at him. He slapped his hands to his ears, but the water that dripped from his hair slid down between his skin and his hands, dripping in his ears, and the sound of the laughter started again. He fell to his knees, his own tears blending with the rain, mocking his existence. His entire body gave way, as he collapsed into the ground, making a splash from the impact. Many people walked past him, either not seeing him, or ignoring him outright. One person even stepped over his body, and thought nothing of it. Clinging to his chest, held just above the ground was an orange book, surprisingly dry, especially when you considered how wet him and his clothes were. He struggled with one hand, trying to claw his way forward across the slippery wet pavement, his hand soon becoming covered in scrapes and cuts. The rain kept laughing hysterically at the small boy, crackling in his wake. His eyes slowly closed, his vision becoming blurred in water and sickness.

A young man walked by, clad in an orange raincoat, cursing on the foul weather. He shook his fist around at his side, clenching it, even though no one could see it concealed under the sleeve of his coat. He looked down at the ground, his feet moving across it, watching the whole world soak. He wondered how his day would have turned out if it hadn't been raining all day.

"If it hadn't been raining this morning… I might not have been so depressed… and then I might have been able to talk to DJ without making a complete idiot of myself." He grumbled to himself, cursing again. "It's just not fair… now she'll never even want to look at me again… then again, why would she? I'm just a disgusting person… I don't think anyone in the world would want me."

The boy kept walking, until he noticed a black blur in the distance. He thought it was just someone else, walking through the rain like he was, until he noticed it wasn't moving. He questioned what it was; still walking forward, until he discovered the blur was a small child. Startled to find such a thing, he hurried forward, kneeling at his side, grabbing his arm.

"Kid, kid, are you alright?" The child gave him no answer. He pulled his head up, and discovered it showed no emotion, only a blank stare. He worried he had already passed away, but with nothing to lose, he hoisted the child up, taking his arms over his shoulders and carried him on the large hump on his back, made from his backpack underneath his coat. The book continued to stay close to the child, hanging from the two by his stomach.

The boy reached his home, slamming the door open and carrying the child up to his room. Neither of his parents were home, so no one questioned his arrival, or how loud he was being. He kicked his door open, slamming it against the wall it was hinged to, and lying down the child on his bed. The child had black hair that streamed down his face, making him look like some sort of rebel. His shirt was a pleasant looking orange, and he wore torn up blue denim jeans, ripped mostly around the bottom of the legs. His shoes were black and white, and looked like baseball cleats.

The boy put his hand to the child's forehead, finding no temperature whatsoever, a perfect mix of hot and cold. He questioned why he had no temperature, after being in the freezing rain. Maybe he had just been on the ground for very little before he had helped him out? Whatever it was, he was glad he didn't have a fever. He tucked the blanket and comforter over him, and tucking his head underneath his fluffy white pillows.

"This kid… is he even alive? Was I too late?" He looked down at his feet again. "I messed up again… I can't seem to do anything right… not for DJ… not for this kid either…"

He punched his table in anger, making small cracks in it. It was made of fairly weak material, but stood up to most of the things he did on it, usually his homework. He rubbed his knuckles, seeing a splinter up in his skin, and looking down at his feet again.

"… Urgh…" The child groaned, struggling to wake itself up, to see if it had survived. The boy dived to the bedside, watching him struggle to force his eyes open. His eyes gently cracked open, showing his large blue eyes.

"Hey… are you okay?" The boy watched over him, curiously. The child blinked, and frowned at the boy.

"Just who are you? And where the hell am I?" He softly groaned, displeased by the boy's hospitality. "Tell me right now, before I have to resort to violence."

The boy blinked back at him, lost in his words, wondering why the child wasn't gracious for saving his life, or at least why he was being so rude about it. "This is my house… my name's Alex." He said, calmly, not trying to provoke his attitude. "I found you on the ground outside… you collapsed, or something. Are you feeling alright?"

The small child raised his body from the bed, still a little dizzy. He turned his head to Alex, still lost in the eyes of the small child. "I'm alright… just a little out of it." Alex smiled back at the child, trying to warm him up with his kindness.

He looked up at over his body, from his feet to his hair, when he noticed something.

"Ah!" He shouted, startled. "Why is your hair orange?! It was just black! I swear! I'm not colorblind at all!"

The boy returned a blank stare at Alex. "My hair's always orange… what are you talking about?" The child looked disgruntled and confused with his response, thinking he was objecting to his appearance.

"I swore it was black… and it didn't stick up like that. It was all over your face… like you were some sort of emo kid." Apologized Alex, still dumbfounded. "Oh… yeah, you probably wouldn't know what an emo is anyways. Just go ahead and ignore that." The child flashed his wrists under his eyes.

"No cuts. I'm no emo kid." He complained, glaring at him.

"You know what an emo is?" Alex questioned. "Man, they're teaching kids the wrong things these days… but that's not important… uh, where do you live?"

The child looked away. "I don't have a home right now…"

"What?!" Alex yelled. "If you don't have a home, then you're staying right here! I'll take you in!"

"Take me in?" The child questioned him, almost like he had no idea what he meant.

"Yeah! You'll be like my little brother!" He shouted, determination twinkling in his eyes.

"You sure don't hold anything back, do you…?" The boy looked uninterested, but still stayed in bed.

"Hey, it's what a good person does… they help people in need. Now, what's your name, kid?" He asked.

The child blinked for a second, flopped back down on the pillow, and sighed.

"It's Rifenno. My name is Rifenno." The child tucked his eyes closed, curled up underneath the blankets, and fell asleep again.


	2. Rifenno

Chapter 2: Rifenno

The rain kept beating down, tearing at the window of Alex's house. Rifenno rolled around in his sleep, almost trembling from the noises. He moaned occasionally, begging for the rain to stop. Alex watched intently over the boy, almost for his own amusement. Alex giggled when he tossed and turned in the bed, but still watched over him for his own protection.

What intrigued Alex was a vermillion coloured book the boy hard tried to hide underneath his shirt. In his sleeping condition, he was able to slip the book from underneath his folded arms. The book had weird symbols all over it. They almost looked like an ancient language or hieroglyphs. There was a metal strip chained to the spine by chains, with a star engraved in the metal.

Alex flipped the pages in the book. Each page was full of blue text that matched the so-called language. Page after page after page, blue text that was totally undecipherable to Alex. He wondered what this book was, and what it was really worth to Rifenno. He also couldn't help but question Rifenno's strange name. He looked it up on his computer, and found absolutely no definition or origin of his name. Maybe it was his nickname?

He kept flipping pages in the book, and eventually came upon a certain page that had text that matched the books color. And for some strange reason, the coloured text was the only text that he could even understand.

"Va… ra…tsu?" He mumbled to himself. "Varatsu? What is that supposed to mean?" Alex scratched his head, and picked up the book by the spine, trying to shake anything free. A small slip of paper fell out from between the pages, a solid white color. He picked it up, and flipped it over, showing a picture of a much happier looking Rifenno, and a girl that was probably his older sister. They looked like such a happy pair. He looked at Rifenno now, compairing him with the picture. His attitude towards him was nothing like what he was like in the picture.

Rifenno slowly opening his eyes, and rubbed them vigorously, taking Alex into his vision, who was flipping through more pages of his book.

"Hey… good morning. You up all night or what?" Rifenno mumbled, still half-asleep.

"I just slept downstairs… didn't wanna disturb you. And I get up pretty early on my own anyways."

"Gotcha… "Rifenno sat up, and then realized something.

"Wait, where's my book? WHERE IS MY BOOK!?!" He panicked, running around the room screaming for his book, almost like the 'tornado' that hits children's rooms and makes a total mess out of them.

"It's right here, kid." Alex picked the book off of the desk, and hit him gently over the head with it in mockery. "What's so special about that book? It's complete nonsense."

"Well, clearly, you don't know how to read, then."

"Then you're from some far off land that uses a language that no one's ever even heard of before. Or it doesn't exist at all, and that's just a bunch of doodles that no one except for you could understand."

"It is a real language, and I can read it!"

"Then what does this say?" Alex held the book open on the page with the special coloured text, showing it to him.

"Uuh… it says… it says… this is a book. You read me, and you learn things." He stammered, hoping his stuttering hadn't made him look like he was lying.

"You can't really read it. I can read it; it just doesn't make any sense."

"… isn't that pretty much the same as not being able to read it?" He complained.

"I can read it… why can't you?" Alex rebutted, glaring at him.

"You can't read it! If I can't, you certainly can't!"

"It says Varatsu, but I have no-- Alex was cut off in mid-sentence by Rifenno's strange behaviour. His eyes had turned completely white, and his mouth was hanging open, making strange noises. Without warning, a burning-hot fireball shot out of his mouth, nearly striking him in the in the face, but was sent whizzing over his head instead, igniting some of his hair. The fireball continued it's travel across the room, impacting against the wall behind Alex, making the wall buckle and crack from the force, making a crater in the wall.

Alex stood frozen in front of the child, whose eyes had just returned to normal, slowly identifying the destruction as his own.

"Kid… what the heck was that?" Alex stuttered, terrified by the tremendous power the child weld, and how much damage such a small boy had caused.

"That's called a fireball, idiot." He pointed up at the crater where the fireball had hit, and was slowly disappearing.

"Yeah, I realized that much! But how did you do that, and what the hell are you?!" He jumped up, pointing at him like he had committed a crime of some sort.

"I can tell you, but it might be a little mind-blowing for you." He flicked his fingers around, cleaning the black dirt off his clothes. "Think you could handle it?"

"I think I can. I'm curious to know just what the heck you really are." Alex flicked his fingers at his forehead, making Rifenno stumble and almost lose his balance.

"Okay… let me explain to you." Rifenno sat down on the bed, Alex sitting cross-legged at his feet like a small child ready for story time.

"You see… what I am is something called a mamodo. We live in a world very similar to yours. Many other mamodo live there as well. We also have a mamodo king, who rules over our land. But, he can't stay king forever. So, every one thousand years, 100 mamodo children who are chosen by the king enter the human world, and battle each other. The last one standing becomes the mamodo king." He lifted his hand, pointing to the vermillion coloured book in a stack of books on Alex's desk. "Those books unlock our powers, and allow us to fight. We just need a human to read our book so we can use them."

"I see… "Alex nodded, with wide eyes.

"And you're going to be my human partner, because you can read my book." He said, almost like a command.

"… I don't have a choice, do I?" Alex said, with a little tone of worry in his voice.

"Not unless you like being burned." Rifenno gripped Alex's arm, digging his fingers into his skin. His hands were very hot, and made Alex's skin burn. Alex pulled his arm free, yelping and sucking on the burn to lessen the pain.

"Ow ow ow ow!" Cried Alex, still rubbing and sucking on the burn mark. "Okay, okay, I'll be your partner! Just no more snake burns!"

"I'm glad you see it my way." He smirked, looking down on his so-called master.

"So… this word here. The V-word. What does it mean in your language?" He asked, curious if he knew the answer.

"It means fire, or fireball. Hence the fireball." Once again, he pointed to the crater, which was now unoccupied.

"… This is going to be a weird little relationship."

"Just don't play with fire… or fire will play with you." He smirked, talking like he had been saving that line for that exact moment.

Alex gulped, and took a hold of the book again. "Rifenno, huh…? Well, let me be the first to say it. Welcome to the human world." He held out his hand, which Rifenno happily shook in response.

"AH! AH! YOUR HAND IS STILL HOT!" Alex fled down the hall to the washroom to cool his hand. Rifenno sighed.


	3. Rifenno's Secret Mission

Chapter 3: Rifenno's Secret Mission

"But I have to go to school… I can't just stay home and look after you…" Whined Alex, with his book bag hung over his shoulder, wearing a very formal school uniform.

"Well, what do I do if I get hungry? Or thirsty? Or destructive?" Whined Rifenno, who was definitely acting his age.

"There's food in the fridge and the cupboard, some drinks in the shelf of the fridge… and if you get destructive, go outside. I don't need my mom being on my case because the house burned down while she's away on a business trip."

"Alright then, how long do you think you'll be out?" The child sat cross-legged on his bed, his fists curled up and resting in his lap.

"Uh…" Alex counted on his fingers, just to make sure he was correct with his time frame. "I'll be out for six and a half hours. I might come back sooner if a substitute shows up, because they never know what the heck they're talking about."

"Sounds amusing…" Rifenno lay down on his bed, making himself comfortable, picking up the remote control and flipping channels on the grey television in Alex's room. "See ya later."

"Yeah, alright." He left the room, closing the door gently and leaving the house. He met up with some of his friends and chatted wildly with them, Rifenno still being able to hear them from the confined room.

"Ugh… I can't believe that goofball of a human is really going to be my partner… I probably won't even last too long." He looked down at the book, which he had tucked underneath the mattress of Alex's bed. "Maybe I should just play chicken… stay hidden for as long as I can and hopefully no one will come and start a fight."

He rested his head back on the pillow, flipping more channels, but only finding soap operas. "I should probably go out and do something to pass the time… six and a half hours is a lot of time." He leaped up off the bed, leaving the television on and hopped out the open window into the small garden below, trampling a few flowers in it. "Aw crap… I hope that garden isn't too important to them." He said, slightly worried as he fled through the front gate and out into the neighborhood.

After how his entrance into the human world went, he was a little nervous about going back into it. He peered around, seeing the shining sun, and all the friendly looking people that were going around. He looked up at the bright blue sky, almost cloudless; meaning no chance of rain and repeating yesterday's little tragedy.

He ran east, ducking behind a corner and peering out from behind it, watching a happy couple taking a nice little stroll. He ducked back behind the corner, hiding there until the two had passed without him being seen. He moved down the road, in slow little movements, making sure no one would see him. He eventually reached the end of the road, where he found a large building, with a large field in front of it, all held in by a large brick wall. Rifenno jumped up and pulled himself up, peering over the wall to make sure no one was around, which no one was. He jumped over the wall, falling into a bush, once again concealing him in the unknown.

He slowly pushed away the clumps of branches so he could see out into the field, where a few teenagers were passing by, going into the building, one of them holding a soda.

"Hm… if I go out there, someone might see me trying to get inside." He looked around in the bush, looking for the main branch that he could break off. He gripped the thickest branch, and hoisted the entire bush off the ground, and began scurrying into the building, concealed underneath the bush. He pushed the door open with his brute force, threw the bush outside again, and ducked behind a wall, as two more people walked by without noticing him. He jumped to the next corridor and pushed another door open, into a large black room, with lots of random pieces of junk inside.

"There's gotta be something in here that'd be good for hiding in…" He rummaged through the various things in the small dark room, finding a box big enough for him to hide in. "Perfect…"

He flipped the box over, dumping out various things, including a DVD which had Alex's name on it, but in the dark room, he couldn't see it in the darkness of the room. He tucked the box over his head, flipped the handle open so that he could see out, and brushed the door open, moving around the hallway, dodging the walls so not to make noise.

When he reached the corner, he made a sharp turn in the box, and bumping into the edge, when the school bell went off.

"Shit! They know I'm here!" He fled for the corner, as the boys and girls came swarming out of all the room, dressed in various clothing, all very formal, usually white buttoned dress shirts and black pants for the men, and sailor uniforms for the women.

Rifenno held his fingers out the handle flap of the box, watching all the people walk by, chatting happily. "I've stumbled upon some sort of secret organization… " Rifenno mumbled to himself, spying all the people that walked by, identifying them so that he could report them to the police later.

"Hey guys! There's some box in the hallway!" Rifenno perked up as he heard this, fearing his cover had been blown. He held onto the handles of the box, preparing for the inevitable. The box was hit with a strong force, knocking his shelter around, still remaining in the corner, but the box had sustained damage from the impact, and was starting to slump around the edges. The group of boys had left. Rifenno sighed, and began shuffling down the hallway again.

Rifenno skidded to a halt at the entrance to another room, where he heard more people talking. He lifted the box and looked inside the classroom. Several boys and girls were inside the room, but a large group of them were chatting in the corner. A boy and a girl broke off from the group, and the two were talking at the doorway. Rifenno ducked back into the box and listened.

"S-so… DJ…" The boy stuttered, very nervously. "I… I wanted to tell you… that… I… that I…l-lo--" His conversation was cut short by two girls in the larger group, calling the girl back into the group. She happily skipped back into it, and began more conversations. The boy hung his head in defeat, and left the classroom, and tripped over the edge of Rifenno's box, falling flat on his face.

"Ugh… I can't even stand up right… why would she ever want to talk to me?" He groaned, the tone of his voice almost sounding like he was crying. He stood up and left down the hall, his hands tucked into his dark black pants, watching his feet and every step he took.

Rifenno lifted the box off his head, and watched the boy walk down the hall, looking depressed.

"Was that Alex?" He questioned, watching him slip down another hallway and go out of sight. "That couldn't be him… Alex is usually so happy and cheery… it must be someone else." Rifenno threw the box away, and looked inside the classroom again, when the bell went off again.

"Ahh!" Rifenno panicked, flailing his arms wildly as he jumped out the window, ran outside the outer walls of the building, back down the road, turning at the corner, fleeing back into the garden of Alex's house, bending his legs and flying up and into the window, back into Alex's house, where he jumped into the bed, and hid under the covers until everything was silent again.

Rifenno slowly lifted the covers, just enough so he could see out into the rest of the room. "It appears I haven't been followed… damn, I'm a good spy." He stroked his hair back, much like he was stroking his ego.

Not too long after, he heard the front door open, and footsteps walking up the stairs to the second floor, the door opening, and Alex peering inside, to find Rifenno lying on his bed, still flipping channels on his television, just like he had left him.

"Looks like someone hasn't moved since I left. Have a nice day, Rif?" He asked, sounding very cheery.

"Heh… yeah, I've been pretty bored all day. Good to see you're finally home." The boy sweat with great anxiety, fearing that he might have seen him escaping back into the house, or maybe even seeing him in the building.

"Well, I hope the TV's been entertaining enough. I'll go make us something to eat, and we can watch something." Alex closed the door and hurried down the stairs again.

Rifenno sat on the bed, thinking to himself. "Was that guy I saw today… was that really Alex?" He sighed, flopped his head back down on the pillow, and shut his eyes in calm silence.


	4. Mamodo of the Sky: Part 1

Just a heads up to anyone enjoying this story, I'd be glad to accept any and all ideas for Mamodo, but please respect if your character is sent back, or is killed. If I have time, I'll make a full spell list and mail it to you. Just let me know, and leave the stuff in your review.

If you do submit, I'll need a name, ability, basic spell (like Zatch's is Zaker or Brago's is Reis), personality, book color, book keeper, book keeper's personality, and anything else you feel is important. Thank you!

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Chapter 4: Mamodo of the Sky Part 1

"So… Rif, what would you like to do today?" Alex asked his short, fiery-tempered friend.

"Stop calling me that. I don't like having stupid nicknames." He grumbled back, not even bothering to waste his time by looking at him.

"Come on, 'Rifenno'," Alex mocked him, twisting his face in amusement. "It's a great day! Sun's shining, birds are singing, and everyone's so damn happy! Why don't you cheer up too?"

"The only thing birds are good for is making food. Eggs, roast bird, whatever." He complained, still not interested in having a friendly conversation.

"Well, I like food as much as the next guy… but I prefer to think of all the meat I have as scavenged meat, the leftovers that the predators eat. I'd become a vegetarian, but I like meat too much."

"I wasn't looking for your life story, kid." Rifenno glared up at him, hoping to shut him up.

"Yeah, but I like talking. So get used to it." He gave Rifenno a goofy, but friendly smile and thumbs up, kneeling down to his level so he would see it better. Rifenno grumbled more.

Rifenno and Alex were walking down the street, where lots of outdoor restaurants were set up, most of them serving Italian food. Many people were laughing, smiling, and chatting with one another. The sky above fluttered with birds, and lazy, drifting clouds. The streets bustled with activity, and plenty of commotion. The voice of the crowd was gentle and dispersed between the sidewalks.

"So… is the human world this active normally?" Rifenno questioned, hoping to learn more about the humans.

"Well, these two days of the week, Saturday and Sunday, are times when students don't have school. So, they often spend that time doing things they normally can't do during school hours, like go out to places like this." Alex spoke as if he was a college professor, majoring in the behavior of the average teenager.

"I see…"Rifenno agreed, not feeling like provoking another fight between the two, because he knew Alex's ridiculousness would beat him any day.

"Is there anywhere you see that looks interesting?" Alex looked down at him, this time, seriously.

"Hm… not that I can think—"Rifenno stopped mid-sentence, and whirled to the side, staring at a large, inflatable ice cream cone, colored pink at the scoop, attached by ropes and cables to a bright blue concession stand, swarmed at the front by what seemed like hundreds of small children. "ICE CREAM."

"Ice cream? Yeah, I guess I could spare a few dollars." Alex reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet, unsheathing a dollar bill, looking up to find Rifenno tearing his way through the children, grabbing them by the collar and throwing them away from the crowd, slowly moving himself to the front of the crowd.

"GIVE ME MY ICE CREAM, FOOLISH HUMAN!" He cackled as he finally stepped forward to the counter, with a field of seemingly dying children, almost as if it were a battlefield. Alex slowly stepped forward to meet him, worrying that he could send him flying away as well. Alex gently handed the clerk the money he had brought with him, the clerk accepting nervously and putting it into the register, as his body shook in fear, loud enough even for the two to hear it. The clerk ran to the machine, poured out a sloppy ice cream cone for the fiery boy, and gently placed it in his grip before fleeing in terror, screaming as he plowed through the wall in the back of the store.

"… Rif, you really need to tone down on the angry." Alex coughed; bewildered by the fear he struck in the hearts of men.

"Shut up. I have my ice cream after all." Rifenno grumbled, as he took a lick of the ice cream, savoring the sweet chocolate flavor. He smiled and giggled like a little girl on the inside, but still looked like the ruthless little fire child on the outside. He went for an encore taste, only to find that the whole thing had already melted into a light brown liquid inside his cone.

"ARRRRGHHHH! CURSE THE FLAME MAMODO BLOODLINE!" Rifenno yelled with frustration, smashing the cone against the ground, splattering the ice cream fluid all over the ground. He stamped his feet across the remains, crushing all the pieces into the ground eternally.

"So, that whole 'increased body heat' thing does have its downsides…" Alex pondered out loud. "Interesting."

"What you stupid humans need is a type of ice cream that won't melt like—"Rifenno complained, but was cut off in mid-sentence by another child who had finally returned to his feet, and was now breathing hard, almost ready to collapse.

"H-hey, you! Kid!" The child stammered, still a little in shock from being blown away by Rifenno. "You didn't have to push us all out of the way! You coulda just stood in line like the rest of us!"

"I don't like having to wait. Forcing your way to the front is always the best way to get what you want." Rifenno smirked, turning his head away in disgust.

"I'll show you, you stupid kid!" He yelled. "Jonathan, now!"

"Wigar!" Came a voice from somewhere nearby, but his voice was cloaked by the commotion of the crowd.

The child's mouth sprung open, and a large, concentrated and storming gust of wind, making direct contact with Rifenno and smashing him up against the side of a building, creating a crater on impact. The child's jaw snapped shut again. "How do you like that, kid?! I don't like it when people try and get ahead of me when I wait so long to—"

"Is that all you've got, kid?" Rifenno smirked, as he climbed from the crater and hopped down to the ground. "That was pathetic. A simple summer's breeze."

"W-WHAT THE?! YOU'RE A MAMODO TOO!?" Panicked the child, alarmed by his situation.

"He's a Mamodo too?" Alex questioned, pointing at the other child, still a little new to the whole concept of Mamodo battling.

"That's right." Rifenno answered, before turning back to the other child and talking him down. "And do you know why you shouldn't play with the _elite_ _children_ like me?" Rifenno glared down the other child, attempting to scare him from battling.

"B-b-b-because I'll beat you?" He stammered, his knees clacking together like a child's toy.

"Heh… heh…" Rifenno chuckled. "Is that really what you think? That you're _BETTER_ than me? Is that _REALLY_ what you're thinking?" Rifenno held his hand to his face, trying to contain his laughter and the amusement his opponent was giving him.

"Y-y-you're just jealous that I have two spells already, and that I could easily kick your butt! I just don't want to, that's all…" The poor boy even sounded scared, even if he was trying so desperately to sound like he was brave and courageous.

"Kid, you really picked the wrong person to fight." He cackled. "And I don't care if you have two spells or two thousand spells. You'll never stand a chance against a Mamodo of my standard."

"I'll show you, you dumb kid!" He took a fighting stance, and called out again for his bookkeeper. "Jonathan!"

"Wigar!" Came the bookkeeper's voice again. The child's mouth popped open again, firing another whirlwind directly towards Rifenno. Rifenno responded much faster this time, planting his feet firmly in the ground. The strong gale struck Rifenno, and went sailing past Alex, forcing him to put up his arm in a flinch.

By the time Alex put his arm back down to return his attention to the battle at hand, he found Rifenno, bent backwards by the knee, almost in a limbo-like pose. He whispered gently to Alex so only he could hear him. "Say the spell, kid."

Alex clutched the book in his arm, before flipping it open, right to the page with the one word.

"VARATSU!" He yelled, making the book glow even brighter. Rifenno put his hands together, one on top of the other, concentrating the fire energy in the palm of his hands.

Right before firing his attack back, he forced his body back to it's upright position, and then releasing the attack, forcing the fireball forward with incredible force and speed, impacting the other Mamodo child and slamming him against another building, this time, not making a crater, but blasting him straight through the building, and hitting the next, making the impact crater there instead. People began fleeing from the building that now had a hole impacted through the walls of the first floor, screaming with terror and fear that they could be harmed.

Rifenno dusted his shoulders off, like nothing had just happened right there. Alex blinked; terrified by the immense power Rifenno had exercised, and that he had just caused almost an entire building to collapse.

"Now _that's_ how the real Mamodo play." Rifenno smirked, wiping a little bit of blood from his lip, a cut that had been opened when the first whirlwind flung him into a wall.

"Is… is he okay?" Alex stammered, still very frightened.

"If he's still okay, I'll fix that." Rifenno pounded his palm, trying to make himself look even more tough, leaving Alex thinking about why he felt the need to do that.

Rifenno slowly approached the rubble, through the remains of the building, and up to the Mamodo child, who was still engraved inside the building, scratches all over his body, stains of blood on his arms and shirt. He grabbed the collar of the boy's shirt, pulling him free from the wall, rocks filling the hole his body made.

"Kid… where's your book keeper?" He grumbled at the child, in the scariest tone of voice he could muster.

"He-he-he…" The child stammered and panicked, not sure what to do.

"Tick, tock, tick, tock…" Rifenno glared the child down.

"HE'S OVER THERE, IN THAT ALLEYWAY!" The child panicked and threw his arm up, pointing a finger. The man knew he had been found out, as his footsteps leaving the scene were quite loud, enough for Rifenno to hear him. Rifenno let go of the kid, leaving him to fall on his feet, but ending up landing on his bottom instead. He dashed off towards the alley, finding the man, spiked brown hair, piercing blue eyes and a gentle aviator's outfit, standing at the other end of the alley.

"Give it up, old man… I win, you lose. Hand over the book, and I don't have to introduce you to Mr. Burnburn." Rifenno held his fist out, then opening it, a small round flame dancing in his palm.

"Oru Wigar!" The man yelled out, making Rifenno step back and try to turn around in an attempt to block their attack, but instead, being struck in his side by a laser of concentrated air, the blast ripping his shirt open at the side and digging into his skin, blowing him against the brick wall, but not damaging it, making the impact that more stunning. His body collapsed against the ground, and Rifenno remain motionless…

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Hope the chapter was cool, and I'm looking forward to any submissions!


	5. Mamodo of the Sky: Part 2

Okay, finally back, ready to start up another chapter of Zatch Bell: The Second Battle!

Once again, I'm accepting fan-made mamodo. But please, try and be fair about them. No over powered mamodos that are never going to get defeated or cross-over mamodo that carry in stuff from other anime. I already have one, and he's covering most of the bases for me.

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Chapter 5: Mamodo of the Sky Part 2

Rifenno fell to the ground with a gentle crash, bouncing once before hitting the ground. His shirt was torn open at the side, with a gash in his skin, small amounts of blood leaking out onto the cold pavement. He groaned in pain, reaching a hand out, struggling himself to his feet, holding his arm against his wound to keep the blood in, breathing hard, surrounded from both sides by his opponents, both human and mamodo.

"Damn… it… to have it all go to waste so early…" Rifenno groaned, trying to pull himself with one hand. His hand gave way, sending himself face down again, but with little force, so he didn't hurt himself too much.

Alex came dashing from behind the corner, skidding his sneakers along the cement ground as he came to a halt, facing the back of the wind mamodo, and his eyes locking with his human partner in the distance.

"Rif!" He called out to his mamodo, worried that he had fallen in battle, or was possibly even dead. "Rif, wake up! Get up, Rif!"

"Oh great… this is just what I need… that dumb kid coming to my rescue." Rifenno mumbled under his breath, only the wind mamodo could hear what he said, and barely could make the faint words out at that.

"Kid… you should learn not to mess with the best! Then you'll get beaten just like the rest!" The wind mamodo child sing-songed, once against trying to inflate his ego and boast about his minimal courage.

"Shut… the hell up… you damn kid…" Rifenno struggled to his feet, after pushing himself with one hand, holding his tattered shirt over the wound in his clenched fist. "You… just caught me off… guard… and it won't… happen again." Rifenno struggled with his words, panting hard in pain.

Alex became very worried that Rifenno didn't have enough strength left to take any more hits. "If he gets hit again… I doubt that he'd still have enough strength to survive!" Alex thought, his mind rushed for a solution.

In a moment of stupor, he rushed forward, planting his right foot in the wind mamodo's face in mid-run, sweeping up Rifenno in his arms, and dashing off past the human. The two stood there, the human stunned in disbelief, and the mamodo stunned from being flattened.

Alex ran as fast as his legs could catch him, but his slight obesity caused him to become tired quickly, getting only about a block away before he hid behind in a doorway just around a corner, falling to his butt and putting Rifenno down. "Hah… Rif… gotta… learn when… to run… away…" He wheezed out his scolding, but it had little effect on the fire child.

"Damn it… I was winning, Alex! I could have taken them all on, without the help of you and your dumb…" Rifenno flinched in pain, gripping his wound with his shirt, his eyes squeezed tightly in pain.

"Yeah, you _clearly_ could have taken them both out." Alex sighed, resting his legs out on the street, with a few people passing by, giving the two ponderous looks.

"Shut up… I'm much stronger than you give me credit for." Rifenno complained, with a low tone in his voice.

"Uh huh…"

"They're probably looking for us… looking through the crowds."

"Well, duh." Alex grabbed Rif again, holding him under his arm and running down the street, ducking into an alley, and hiding behind a dumpster.

"… Alex, why are you so intent on saving me from the other mamodo?" Rifenno questioned Alex, with a little tone of uplifting hope in his voice.

"Well, I just like ya. And I don't want to see your dream go to waste. If someone has a dream, and they come to me asking for help, the last thing I wanna do is turn them down. Not very often people come to me for that kind of thing." Alex gave Rif a goofy, but determined grin, complete with a thumbs up. Rifenno's eyes grew wide open, almost like he took Alex's advice to heart.

Suddenly, Rifenno's book, tucked under Alex's arm burst into light, glowing and shining, illuminating the alleyway. Alex blocked his eyes with his other arm, trying to peek around it, and see what was going on. Many people were alarmed by the glowing light pouring out of the alley, many people stopping to see what the source was, then being blinded by the white and vermillion light.

"W-what the…?" Alex almost swore, but held himself back. The glow slowly shrunk down, and the book reverted back to its normal color, a bright vermillion color. Alex held the book up, looking all around the cover and back cover for something that have might changed. Rifenno was wobbling around in his seated position, a little bit dizzy from all the bright lights.

"Whoa… whoa… that was… kinda insane. What happened?" Rifenno finally snapped back into reality, after being almost blinded and put into an epileptic state. Alex was still rotating the book furiously to find anything that might have changed, even just a little mark or something.

"Well… the book obviously was glowing. And it probably means something happened to it. Unless the book lights up like that for no reason every so often."

"I know that it meant something… I researched the stuff back at the Mamodo Academy… but what was it?" Rifenno gripped his chin, lost in thought.

But then, without warning, the aviator and his mamodo partner rushed out from the other side of the alley, staring the two down with their long stretched shadows, as the sun was beginning to set overhead.

"Ha ha, we found you, you stupid morons! We knew that that glowing light was you… and we just followed it straight to you! Way to reveal your position, stupid!" The little mamodo laughed, his eyes swelling in his ego.

"Oh my god… these two are just pissing me off." Rifenno grumbled, pushing himself to his feet, his wounds having healed slightly in their escape. "Just let me end this… I don't feel like running anymore."

"Are you sure you can still—" Alex said, with a tone of worry in his voice.

"I _said_; let me end this." Rifenno glared back at Alex, his eyes burning with rage.

"U-uh…" Alex stuttered in fear, worried that Rifenno would grab his skin and burn it, like he had before unintentionally. He took the book, and flipped it open to the page with his spell. "V-Varatsu!"

The fire gathered in Rifenno palms, one on top the other, until the ball formed and grew in mid-air, and launched towards his opponent, a fierce and determined look on Rifenno's face as the attack fired.

"Heh… you think such a wimpy attack like that could hurt me? Jonathan, cast the—" The mamodo child tried to call out to his human partner, but not in time to predict the large fireball to smash him upside the face, sending him flying up and backwards, hitting the ledge of a building's metal railing on the roof, almost cracking his spine against it. After the impact wore off, his body tumbled down towards the concrete, smacking several times against the rough brick exterior of the building, before landing face-first into the pavement, making several cracks.

"Yeah, direct hit!" Rifenno gave a nice little victory pose, complete with winking action and thumbs up, almost like the pose of an action figure.

"Uhm… yeah, direct hit!" Alex followed suit, taking the same pose as his mamodo partner.

"R-Rayar!" Jonathan grabbed his mamodo, trying to rub away the blood from his wounds using his saliva and his thumb.

Rifenno pointed down to the book Jonathan had been holding, a color, lying on the ground, after being thrown away when Jonathan went to help Rayar. "The book. Burn it now."

"What for?" Alex questioned, forgetting what Rifenno had told him about the mamodo fight.

"Just do it." 

"But…"

"NOW."

"God… I wish you'd tell me more, rather than just shout orders." Alex flipped his book open, back to the usual page. "Varatsu!"

The fireball gathered again, building it's energy before firing again, hitting the book, knocking it lightly against the wall, before having it burst into flame. The book burned in a blue flame, even when the fireball was a bright orange-red. The book slowly burned away, its ashes falling around the outline of the book.

"J-Jonathan… I…" Rayar's body was slowly floating away in little sparkles… his body becoming transparent, drifting off into the sky on a gentle, unnoticeable breeze. The book only remained as a small portion, taking it's time to burn up.

"What… what's going on?" Alex questioned, but too startled by the event to look Rifenno in the eye.

"He just lost the mamodo battle… he's going back home. It's what happened when the mamodo cannot fight, or his book is burned." Rifenno gave a dignified answer, also not looking up at his owner. The sparkles became slower, and more split up, and the body vanished back into the world beyond that of the humans. The man, shaken up by the event, ran off in fear of his own safety.

"He… he's gone? Where'd he go?" Alex asked stupidly.

"I already told you… back to the mamodo world, where we all came from." Rifenno was very arrogant about his response, most likely because Alex had already forgotten what he had told him.

"This… this is very complicated. Is there a rule book for this mamodo battle or something?" Alex asked, a little more intelligently.

"Believe me, if there was, I would have given it to you a long time ago. You desperately need it." Rifenno grumbled, before spinning around and walking off.

"Yeah… I desp—HEY!" Alex yelled out before chasing after Rifenno, who had already gone around the corner, but in his anger, he dropped the book onto the ground, onto the page with the Varatsu spell.

"Whoops… don't wanna forget that." He grabbed the book, from both edges, and almost closed it shut, when something caught his eye. "There's… another spell…"

"Firashield!"

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Finally, after a while and lots of persistence, I finished Chapter 5. Other mamodo characters to join next chapter! Please review!


	6. Forming a Friendship

Welcome back to Zatch Bell: The Second Battle! This chapter's gonna be important, so enjoy!

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Chapter 6: Forming a Friendship

Alex rolled over in his bed, still very drowsy. The constant buzzing of his alarm kept him from sleep, but his exhaustion keeping him from being awake. He tossed and turned, grumbling in his sleep, eventually smacking his alarm into sleep mode, then turning back over and forcing himself back into sleep.

"Ugh… Rif, what time is it…" Alex groaned, trying to fall back asleep.

"It says… eight colon three zero." Rifenno was standing at his bedside, peeking up at the alarm on his night table. "What kind of time measurement is that? Eight colon three zero?"

"Eight… colon… three… zero…" Alex quickly sprung out of bed. "IT'S EIGHT THIRTY?! I'M GONNA BE LATE FOR SCHOOL!!" Alex jumped out of his bed, narrowly missing Rifenno, dashing around his room, collecting his schoolwork which was spread out all over the floor, picking up his clothes and dressing himself in a panic, before shoving everything deep into his backpack, crumbling and ruining all of his papers before dashing down the stairs and out the door, a piece of toast with a sunny side up egg on top hanging from his mouth as he dashed towards school.

"Damn it, damn it, damn it!" Alex dashed down the road, narrowly missing several cars which had to brake at the last second in order to not hit him. He forced his rushed breakfast down his throat, choking and coughing as he ran and tried to swallow. He blew past a bunch of people, dashing like a maniac down the street until coming to a screeching halt at the entrance to his school, desperately trying to catch his breath, putting his backpack down.

The backpack wiggled and shook, as muffled, angry noises came from it. Alex took a moment to notice, from being so tired out from the long run. It fell over; as Alex bent down to unzip it, Rifenno's head popping free from his very own backpack, his face red with anger.

"ALEX! What the hell?!" Rifenno yelled at him. "Whaddya think you're doing, shoving me inside your stupid bag?! I could have freaking suffocated!"

Alex looked down at him, still trying to identify what had happened. "I guess I must have shoved you inside my bag while I was gathering up my stuff… my bad." Alex looked away, feeling a little nervous.

"My bad? MY BAD?!" Rifenno screamed, fire erupting from his mouth in his rage. "I COULD HAVE DIED!! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?! DID YOU NOT SEE ME AS YOU WERE GRABBING YOUR DAMNED THINGS?!"

"Look, I can't take you home right now. I've got things to do here. Do you think you can walk home?" Alex kicked the bag, trying to show his discontent.

"Walking? I don't wanna walk. It's a long walk to home. I'll just stay with you, thanks."

"Then shush. No screaming. I don't need detentions." He picked up his bag again, Rifenno's head still poking out the top, still pissed off at what had happened.

He walked upstairs, still a little exhausted, before stopping at the door of his classroom, which was closed at the time, before turning to Rifenno over his shoulder.

"Hm… maybe, I could show you off… they might like you, you know?" Alex told him, Rifenno listening. "You're kinda cute… and you're something they'll never have seen before, you know?"

"I don't want to be cute." Rifenno grumbled. "I want to be feared as a pyromaniac."

"Of course you do." Alex completely ignored him, pulling him out of the bag by the collar of his shirt, so he didn't burn himself, and grabbed his shirt sleeves before opening the door to his classroom.

"Hey, guys, check out what I—" Alex held Rifenno out, but then realizing what had been happening in the classroom.

Several other mamodo children were inside the classroom, some at their own desks, some sitting on the teacher's, some sitting on the same desk as someone… he quickly counted how many there were, his eyes glaring.

"One… two… three… four… there's four." Alex blinked. "Four mamodo children." He turned his own mamodo child around, glaring at him with squinted eyes. "Are you part of some sort of toy line, and I got a free sample, or what?"

"Last I checked, I wasn't." He bounced out of Alex's hands and monitored the classroom, as Alex was called over by some of his friends.

"Alex, Alex!" DJ called out to him, curling her finger to pull him closer. Alex wobbled over, slightly love struck by DJ. She had gorgeous, long red hair, an adorable smile, and her usual Full Metal Alchemist jacket on, with her Naruto and Full Metal Alchemist bag hanging over her shoulder, and wearing her denim blue jeans. "Check out this little guy… I found him on my roof!"

A small boy sat on her shoulders, with blonde hair, braided in the back, big blue eyes, a black shirt and pants combination, a red jacked covering most of his upper body, and a metal arm, ending off with elevator shoes. "Heya!"

"You look so damn familiar… what's your name?" Alex asked him, curiously, like something was on the tip of his tongue, but he couldn't make it out.

"My name is Edward Elric! And I'm the Full Metal Alchemist!" He raised a fist in high spirits, but Alex stared blankly at him, as DJ mentioned how cute he was. Alex picked him up off her shoulders, stared him clearly in the eyes, and spoke.

"This is going to be the start of a _horrible_ relationship." Alex smiled at him, before letting him go, landing on the floor on his bottom, bouncing a tiny bit before DJ picked him up again and glared at Alex. Alex grumbled, knowing how much of a problem that was going to be for him, but disregarded it for the time being and walked off to see the other mamodo children, and what Rifenno was doing.

"Rif, where'd you go?" He called out for him, cuffing his hands around his mouth to amplify but found him talking with another one of the mamodo children before he had to call again.

"Oh, hey, Alex. This is a friend of mine from the mamodo world. His name is Dusk."

Alex looked down, to see a funny little kid with sharp spiked blue hair, large lime green eyes, an orange and yellow striped outfit with a moon on the front, ripped and torn blue jeans and sneakers.

"Heya there. You must be Rifenno's partner, nice to meet ya." He put his hand out for a friendly handshake, but Alex hesitated.

"…you won't burn my hand, right?" Alex asked, sweating a little.

"Heh, 'course not. Rif's the only one that does that." Dusk chuckled, still holding his hand out. Alex took it, and shook generously, before Dusk pulled him forward, lifting his feet off the ground, twirling him around in the air in a circle and hurling him at a wall with good force, then slumping down, his head being first thing to touch the floor as the rest of his body remained up against the wall. Rifenno was startled by Dusk's action, but didn't really do anything to stop him or scold him.

"Dusk, was that really necessary?" Rifenno asked him, as he watched his book keeper twitch in pain.

"'Course it was! I wouldn't be satisfied if your partner was a weakling, now would I?" He boasted, smiling and pounding his chest.

"He could stand to pack on a little more muscle…" Rifenno commented, before walking off with him out into the hallway with Dusk, chatting about the funny mishaps that happened during their time at the mamodo academy.

Alex slumped over from the wall, falling over and resting, his arms and legs spread out over the floor, as he wondered how such a small child has such amazing strength. As he tried to manage the strength to get up, a small girl peered over him from above. Alex braced himself for another hit, under the impression that all of the children were there just for the sole purpose of bringing him discomfort, but instead, felt a small, delicate hand touching his chest over his heart, almost like whoever it was was testing for his heartbeat.

"Uhm… e-excuse me, mister… a-are you alright?" The girl spoke in a soft, but shy voice. Alex picked himself up, and found himself sitting next to another mamodo child. She had short chestnut colored hair, a red flower tucked in the corner of her hair, a green t-shirt and a large white dress with a pocket in the front, with a sunflower on it. She even had some garden tools in her little pocket. Her entire body gave on the smell of faint nectar.

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine… thanks for asking though." Alex rubbed his back, trying to lessen the pain. He was definitely surprised to see a mamodo that was so friendly. He almost wished that he could trade mamodo between people.

"O-oh, alright, mister… j-just let me know if you need any medical assistance…" The innocent little girl stuttered nervously as she ran back to another female he knew, Victoria, most well known for being his love interest's best friend, and for keeping him in line when he got out of hand. Alex put two and two together, and assumed they were partners in the mamodo battle.

Lastly, as he brought himself to his feet, his hands feeling numb from all the scratches, he saw one last mamodo child, with long dark mahogany colored hair, and a deep sea blue dress, along with red high heel shoes. She turned her head furiously, as if she was looking for someone.

"Damn it, Dusk… where'd you go off to?" She mumbled, but Alex heard her fairly well. He figured it might be in his best interest to help her, as she looked like another mamodo who could beat him up with ease.

"You're looking for that Dusk kid, huh?" He asked her, just trying to help her out in her search. He pointed into the open doorway of the classroom. "I saw him and his friend go out there not too long ago. He probably hasn't left the school yet."

"Ah, thank you so much!" She ran out the door, heels clacking loudly, and presumably seeing Dusk after about a moment of leaving the room, before chasing him down at the end of the hallway. Alex heard both of them screaming, Dusk for mercy, and the mamodo girl for Dusk.

Soon, the teacher walked into class, and noticed all the children mamodo running around and playing. He froze for a second, trying to wonder if some event was to occur that day that he had forgotten about, but the only thing that came to mind was the surprise math quiz he had planned. He grabbed each one of the mamodo children, tucking each of them under his arms, and started demanding ownership of them. Alex, DJ, Victoria, and two other kids raised their hands. All five of them went out into the hallway.

"Kids, why did you bring these children to school? You know you have classes, and you won't have time to look after them." The teacher scolded his students, trying to understand why his own students would bring a group of children to a high school.

"Mr. Kattenfeld, sir, they're a kindergarten group, we're like their guides. We promised them that we'd take them here, because they wanted to see what a school for big kids was like, so… if you'll just let them stay, just for a little bit…" Alex gave him a fake alibi in return, trying to cover up for his stupidity of bringing Rifenno to class. Everyone nodded in agreement, playing along with his fib.

"Well, we can't keep them in class. We'll keep them in that old kid's room. They have a TV there, so they should be able to stay there without causing too much trouble." The teacher escorted the mamodo children to the room, where they all settled in quite nicely, as everyone else went back to class.

"Nice cover up, Alex." One of the kids whispered to him. "Name's Joe. Dusk's my mamodo."

"Ah, alright, cool." They shook hands, and continued back to class, sat down in their seats and continued their normal lessons.

Later that day…

The school bell rung and children poured out of the classrooms, running home or staying on the school grounds to chat with friends. However, the two newly made friends, Alex and Joe, returned to the newly named "Mamodo Room", named by the principal after the book keepers told them that they had come from the Mamodo Academy.

"Hope everyone's getting along. I don't really wanna break up a fight…" Alex sighed, fearing the worst.

"Don't worry, Dusk is usually a pretty good figure of authority." Joe tried to comfort him, as they turned the corner, and got up to the door of the Mamodo Room. They both hear some yelling from the other side of the door and began to fear even more.

As they opened the room's door, they found Rifenno and Dusk in a tug of war for the remote control for the TV, the little girl with the blue dress clinging to Dusk's feet, Edward, or whatever his name was, was drawing on the wall, as the flower girl hid in the corner, scared of all the fighting.

"You already HAD a turn! It's MY turn!" Rifenno pulled harder, getting an edge on Dusk, as the girl shackled around Dusk's feet gave him a disadvantage.

"But my show's not even over yet! Just wait, damn it!" Dusk tried to pull harder, as he sweats just as hard. Edward hummed to himself as the fight waged on, drawing pictures of his book keeper in red crayon along the wall, and the flower girl was almost in tears, scared of all the yelling and arguing.

"Okay guys, calm down!" Alex walked in, grabbing the remote from both of them without much effort. "School's over, so we can go home now. Come on, Rif. We'll watch your show at home."

"Heh heh… seems like you can't win without the help of your human partner!" Dusk laughed, trying to anger Rifenno purposely.

"Grrrrrr…" Rifenno growled, being pulled in by Dusk's taunt, but Alex's hand grabbed his collar before he had time to re-act, and pulled him down out of the room.

"Let's just go home…" Alex sighed, tired from his busy day. "I'll talk to you tomorrow, Joe."

"Okay. See ya." Joe waved as the two left down the stairs and out the school door.

"You have got to work on your anger management issues… all its doing is causing trouble for me." Alex scolded Rifenno, not wanting to deal with him in an angry mood.

"Oh, whatever…" Rifenno crossed his arms, not willing to change his ways easily. Alex continued to drag him home by his collar, as his heels dragged against the pavement.

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And so, the characters begin to develop. Please, keep reading, folks! Desu desu!


	7. Lost in the Eyes of a Female

Thanks for all the support, viewers! Glad to know you're enjoying my stories!

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Chapter 7: Lost in the Eyes of a Female

Alex was up bright and early for another day of school. He was already sitting down at the table, enjoying his breakfast, handmade by his mother, of course. He had his favorite teal-colored t-shirt on, complete with his family crest on the back, and the cuffs as well, also wearing his beige-colored pants. His red hair had been combed back, regardless of how untamable the beast was, for his hair was almost a solid mass. He wore his framed glasses as he flipped through an old issue of a gaming magazine before he realized that someone wasn't at the table.

"Rif! We gotta go soon, get a move on!" Alex called out for his new little sidekick, who came drowsily down the stairs, his hair an intangible mess, much like real fire. He wore the plaid blue pajama pants that Alex had handy, not bothering to put on a shirt in the morning, as he pulled his chair back before plopping himself promptly upon it, and trying to give a friendly greeting.

"G'mornin'." Rifenno quickly grabbed his piece of toast and devoured it whole. His head quickly fell backwards after swallowing, still tired and desiring more sleep. He yawned intensely, almost giving the effect that it shook the whole room. "I didn't sleep too well… the dog just next door was barking at the garbage trucks."

"Oh, yeah, he'll do that." Alex tried to comfort him with a hearty pat on the back, but he remained rather unfazed. Alex picked up his little friend, by the collar of course, so he wouldn't burn himself, and tucked him into the main pocket of his backpack so that only his head stuck out. He struggled to keep his eyes open, but succumbed and fell asleep with his head hanging down out of the backpack.

Alex stepped out the door, closing the door behind him and walking slowly and carefully, for he was in no rush to get to school, and didn't want to cause his new friend any problems with his neck. Cars passed up and down the road, as Alex navigated the sidewalk. Then, he heard his name being called, and turned around to see Joe and Dusk running to catch up with them. They caught up, caught their breath and walked with Alex.

"Hey, Alex. How you doing?" Joe gave a friendly response to his newest friend. Dusk smiled and waved to Alex, and Alex stepped away as he feared being thrown against something, like he had the other day. His back started to feel the pain from yesterday when he thought about it.

"Oh, I'm fine. Rif here didn't sleep to well, so I guess he'll take a nap during school." Alex informed him about what had happened, and Joe chuckled a little to himself.

"Oh, you know, Rif's a bit of an idiot. Unlike me, of course. I know when to go to bed." Dusk continued to put himself over his best friend.

"I heard that." Rif grumbled, who wasn't entirely asleep, but just extremely tired. Dusk got nervous, and tried to put himself out of view by hiding behind Joe's leg so that Rifenno wouldn't attack him. Alex and Joe laughed at Dusk's silliness.

Eventually, the two arrived at their school, and dropped the two of their mamodo off at the 'Mamodo Room', where Rifenno quickly rounded up a blanket and a fluffy pillow and falling asleep in the corner of the room. Both Alex and Joe shrugged, as Dusk sat down and flipped channels on the television, keeping it quiet so it wouldn't wake Rifenno, and force him to endure his rage. He knew what Rifenno was like when his sleep was disturbed. 'Edward' and the little flower girl were already in the room, coloring and drawing at a table on the side of the room opposite to the 'nap time' area.

The two continued off to class, finding DJ and Victoria trying to snap Alec out of some sort of trance. He almost looked scared. Alex walked up, and waved his hand in front of his face, and got no response.

"What's wrong with him?" Joe asked the two girls.

"Oh… he's been like this since yesterday, ever since he got his mamodo." Victoria shook her head, not sure what to do with her friend.

"Aaaaaahhh!!" Alec threw his hands up in anger, screaming like a madman. "She freaking destroyed my house! And several others! That little girl is a menace!" Everyone backed away, startled by such a sudden outburst of violence.

"W-what are you saying?" DJ stammered nervously, who had become scared of Alec now.

"T-that… mamodo girl!" Alec held his head in frustration, and maybe in insanity. "She tried to kill me!"

"She… tried to kill you?" Joe became nervous as well; scared she had plans to kill them as well.

"She crushed my house with a mansion that appeared from nowhere! And then she just walked out like nothing happened! She's a madman! She's a madwoman!" He kept ranting madly, startling everyone in the classroom.

"… I think he's insane. Should I call the asylum?" Alex had a blank expression on his face as he spoke, like he was in total shock.

Meanwhile, in the Mamodo Room… 

"Duskie-poo! Come back! I want to love you and hug you and kiss you!"

"Get the heck away from me! I don't love you!"

"Oh, you! Playing hard to get, are we?"

The Mamodo Room was full of noise, which echoed through the room, bouncing off the walls which were now lined with padding for the protection of the children, just in case they became madly destructive. Rifenno was awoken by the screeching of the other mamodo, making his ears ring. He brought himself up with one swift motion, so silent that no one had even noticed, making him wonder. Both Edward and the flower girl were watching them, cheering on the two as they fought and chased one another.

"What the hell is going on in here?" Rifenno's sudden and unexpected awakening made Dusk trip on a pillow and smack into the wall, face first. The other girl, clad in her usual blue frilly dress and long brunette hair, froze in mid-run, rather alarmed.

"I-I'm just trying to show Dusk how much I love him! That's all!" The girl was rather cheerful, but Rifenno, being woken up in such a disturbing manner, made him forgo that.

"Look, I'm trying to sleep here. Show your love _quietly_, please." Rifenno enforced his ideal rule, before flipping back over, pulling the sheets over him in the process and falling back into his slumber.

The girl, after waiting a few seconds, just to make sure that Rifenno had gone back to sleep, dove after Dusk, who was still injured from smacking into the wall of the room face first. He tried to break away from his captor, but realized that doing so would wake the angry Rifenno, who would most likely burn down the building in a fit of rage.

"Look, you… girl… person…" Dusk stammered, as he couldn't recall the girl's name.

"Amanda! My name is Amanda!" She yelled out, forcing Dusk to take action and cover her mouth up with his hands, to keep her from waking Rifenno.

"… I don't even know who you are. Why are you so obsessed with me?" Dusk forced the question on the girl on top of him, which made her blush with great detail.

"H-how can you not remember me?" She whispered loudly, a faint yell.

"You don't look like anyone I've ever seen…" Dusk had never seen the girl in his life, so he gave an honest response.

"You… you don't recognize me at all?" Amanda had tears in her eyes, which dripped slowly, making small wet spots on Dusk's orange and yellow shirt as they fell.

"A-ah! N-no! Please don't cry! If you do, we'll both be in trouble!" Dusk covered her mouth, and wiped the tears away with his other hand, but no matter how many tears he wiped away, they came back in larger and larger quantities.

"But… but… y-you… don't even remember me!" Amanda's eyes were awash in tears, blurring her vision, as her nose became stuffy from her sorrow.

"O-oh, but I do! I-I just remembered you right now, Amanda! It's _so_ good to see you!" Dusk tried his hardest to sound convincing, and it worked in his favor. Amanda deeply embraced Dusk in her arms, almost to the point to which Dusk had to struggle to breath. Dusk rolled his eyes in embarrassment and shame. Rifenno continued to snore rather loudly.

Later that day… 

"Rifenno, it's time to go home!" Alex shouted happily, as he pushed the sliding door into the wall it was built into, a goofy, yet happy, smile spread across his face. "Time to rela—"

Alex stopped himself, as he looked over the room, and saw that Rifenno was still asleep. The room was completely empty, as Alex was the last one to pick up his mamodo for the day. His hand was tucked under his comfy pillow, giving it the elevation he needed to support his head. Alex couldn't help but smile at how cute his little friend was when he slept. He gripped his little buddy, lifting him up without waking him, and tucking him into his backpack, letting his head hang out. He hoisted his backpack up, and stepped out the building, as he went on home for the night.

---

Sorry, this chapter isn't as good as I hoped. I needed to introduce Amanda and how she felt about Dusk. If you wanna, please, leave a review! And let me know what character you want to see more of!


	8. Dusk's Day Off

Thank you for all your support, viewers! It gives me plenty of inspiration! Here's Chapter 8!

I do not own Zatch Bell, or any of its characters.

---

Chapter 8:Dusk's Day Out

Joe flipped his body up, his hair in a wild frizz, a usual side-effect from sleeping. His alarm kept buzzing and buzzing, even though it wasn't a school day. He flicked the switch on the side of his alarm, turning it off. "Ugh… I really wish the stupid thing wouldn't go off during the weekends. I would have liked some more sleep." He studied the alarm clock more, reading the display '7:30' in red, digital letters. Joe only grumbled more as he found his slippers on the ground, but only after kicking his feet around like a radar before he found them.

"Joe, get up! Get up!" Dusk lunged out at his bookkeeper, knocking him back on his bed, as he made small jumps on his chest in an eager manner. "It's time for school, it's time for school!" Joe groaned, and pushed his little friend to the side.

"Dusk, Dusk, it's Saturday." Joe explained to his mamodo friend, who only returned a blank stare.

"Saturday?" Joe tilted his head in confusion. "What's… Saht-uhr-dae?"

"It's a day in the week where you don't have to go to school." Joe slowly drew his hand across the air, almost as if he was describing a rainbow.

"… So there's no school today?" Dusk sniffled as he spoke, his eyes awash in tears of disappointment.

"Well, no. But we could do something else just as fun!" He exclaimed, patting his little friend on the head, whose eyes were now sparkling with joy. "We can go exploring around town. I bet there's lots of stuff you want to see out there."

"… Do they have ice cream in this world?" Dusk asked curiously, putting a finger to his chin. "And what about chicks? Do you have chicks in this world too?"

"… Chicks? Why is someone your age interested in women?" Joe lifted a single eyebrow in confusion and a half-sense of astonishment.

"Hey, I might as well get a head start on everyone else. And who could resist this?" Dusk licked two fingers and ran them against his hair, dragging it back as he went. Joe sighed, and forfeited his losing battle.

Dusk quickly got dressed, wearing his usual orange and yellow striped shirt, with a big black crescent moon shape on the front, and short, slightly torn sleeves. His blue jeans were torn around the knees and the turned up ends so they didn't drag underneath the heels of his sneakers, blue and yellow in the style of his other pieces of clothing. His blue hair was spiked across his head like it usually was, and his big lime green eyes were extra shiny, even in the sunlight-deprived room of Joe's.

Dusk quickly got out the door as Joe slowly stumbled out behind him, still half-asleep. Dusk marched proudly down the front walk as Joe slammed the door shut and slowly slithered along after his new lively friend. Dusk hummed a song Joe had never heard, but Joe just grumbled along with him, to try and feel a little more enthusiastic.

Soon, Dusk and Joe had made their way into the downtown area of the city. The streets were bustling with people, all busy and headed somewhere, while Joe and his newfound friend strolled casually. Dusk kept pointing around to things, buildings, and people he found funny-looking.

"Hey, Joe, this guy looks like he came right out of hell!" Dusk pointed at an elderly person with a very wrinkly face. Joe walked up, and punched right down onto Dusk's head, making a big red bump on his head. "Yooowwww! Joe, what was that for?!"

"A kid your age shouldn't be swearing." He pulled his hand away from Dusk's head, as he rubbed his bump furiously to lessen the pain, still chanting 'ow ow ow'.

Dusk walked along, keeping his mouth shut, to try and not get in trouble again. Many people passed by, most of them middle-aged men. But, someone stood out of the crowd to Dusk. A tall female, dressed in a slightly-dark blue outfit, complete with short skirt, busty, unbuttoned top, and long blonde hair. This outfit screamed 'flirty secretary' to Dusk, and he just couldn't take it being quiet anymore.

"Hey, baby… you wanna come around to my place later and have some—" Dusk found himself being cut off by a fist impacting him on the head, making another bump of pain right on top of the first, making the throbbing hurt just that much worse, as Dusk keeled over on the ground, cringing in extreme pain. The woman shrugged her shoulders and went on her way, not sure what to make of the strange pair.

"Dusk, you don't do that. Not in public. Not at all, really." Joe grumbled to Dusk, as Dusk tried to pick himself up. "This is the human world. We don't do this here, so get used to it."

"Hey, hey, I hit on girls all the time; it's just what I do." Dusk rubbed his head gently to calm down his pain. "And I don't think it matter what world we're in, I think it's the same on both sides."

"… yeah, but you're not even human. What happens if you were to—oh never mind! I'm too tired to care…" Joe dropped his shoulders, sighing in defeat. "Just… don't do anything stupid. I don't want to have to deal with the police on charges of harassment."

"Yes, sir!" Dusk gave him a little salute, and marched along beside him. Joe picked up his head, and noticed a nice little restaurant beside him.

"Hey… Dusk, do you know what human world food is like?" Joe asked his little troublesome friend.

"I barely know what mamodo world food is like. I pretty much just eat ice cream non-stop." Dusk replied, sort of confusing his owner.

"Well, I guess that explains why you're kind of hyper." Joe sighed, thinking of having to deal with this kid for a while, and that this just wasn't a single day babysitting gig. "Look, I'll get you a sandwich. You'll probably like that."

"Are there ice cream sandwiches?" Dusk asked, his eyes growing wide with curiosity.

"Well, yes, but that's not what I had in m—" Joe found himself being cut off, as his friend burst into the store, screaming, with hands up in the air.

"Surrender all your ice cream sandwiches to ME, Dusk, and your lives shall all be spared!" Dusk screamed to the store, making everyone stare right back at him in confusion, and even fear. Joe slapped his hand to his head, almost ready to cry.

Meanwhile…

A girl, dressed in dark cherry red gothic clothing, lined with plenty of lace, and long dark red hair, was sitting on the roof of a building, watching the world move below her, as she clutched her locket in her fist, flipping it open to reveal a picture of Dusk, spiky blue hair, bright lime green eyes, a yellow and orange striped shirt, and a big goofy smile. The girl stared deep into her locket, and spoke to herself…

"Dusk… just who are you?"


	9. The Truth about the King

Chapter 9: The Truth About The King

**Chapter 9: The Truth about the King**

"Rifenno, could you do me a favour and get the laundry from downstairs?" Alex asked who was sitting at his desk in his room, twiddling a pencil between his fingers, staring blankly at his Physics homework as if he was waiting for the answers to write themselves on the paper for him.

"No thanks. Sleepin'." Rifenno was resting in Alex's bed with two pillows stuck underneath his strangely large head, eyes closed as he tumbled mid-way between dream and reality.

"Come on, I need to do my homework… you're not even doing anything." Alex complained, hanging his head in annoyance as he usually did whenever he found himself arguing with Rifenno.

"I am doing something. I'm sleeping." Rifenno replied, leaving Alex thinking that he was grinning evilly as he wasted Alex's time.

"If you're sleeping, you wouldn't be responding to what I'm saying." Alex rebutted, holding his hand against his forehead with his elbow pressed against his desk, frustrated and losing his patience fast. "So get up, get the laundry, bring it up here, and go back to bed."

"How about _you _get it, _you_ bring it back up here, and _you_ do _your_ homework." Rifenno smirked, leaving Alex with no option but to take care of it himself. He pushed his chair back, stood up, and hurried downstairs, pulled all the laundry from the drying machine in a sloppy manner into a large, white rectangular shaped plastic basket, and hurried back upstairs and dropped the basket on Rifenno, waking him up instantly.

"Gah! A-Alex, you jerk!" Rifenno squirmed around in Alex's bed to try and move the heavy basket of warm clothing off of him, but he found himself met with little success.

"Serves you right for not helping out." He said, as he sat back down at his desk, took his pencil in hand once more and submerged himself in the thought of masses, forces and fields. But instead of coming up with an answer to his homework, he came up with a question instead.

"Rif, something's bothering me. I don't know much about your world… but it's a lot like ours, and we use the same language." Alex asked his little friend, who was still trying to pull a heavy basket off of him.

"Well, I could talk in the little Mamodian that I know. Would you prefer that?" Rifenno coughed, as the basket began to press into his lungs and restrict his breathing.

"No, that's quite alright. But what other traits do the human world and the mamodo world share?"

"Well, some of your words originated from ours, like the constellations, or the word 'shield'." He wheezed out, coughing periodically.

"So the mamodo world pre-dates the human world?"

"No, both worlds were created at the same time, but the mamodo world advanced a little more quickly. We didn't come up with the concept of the mamodo battle until, say, about 100 years ago." Rifenno waved his finger around in the air, trying to give more emphasis on his subject, but that particular hand gesture didn't do much for it.

"But I thought you said the mamodo battle takes place every 1000 years." Alex said, as he turned on his swivelling chair to face Rifenno.

"Mamodo measure time differently than humans do. Every one hundred years in your time is one year to us."

"So, ten years in your world is 1000 years in ours?" Alex pointed, hoping to confirm what he had figured out.

"Yep. Our time system follows closely to yours. And every time a year passes in your world, that's a month to us, so we have a hundred different months. It's the year 2010 here, but it's the second year in our world, during the tenth month, Digoa."

"But the mamodo world was created 10,000 Earth years ago. Why would it be the second year of your world?"

"The mamodo battles up to that point were rather unorganized, and didn't use the books like the one I have. It was just sort of a 'kill each other tournament', where 99 mamodo died every time. We perfected the mamodo battle style using human partners and books two thousand human years ago, so we reset the counter at that point."

"Okay, but there's still one thing that doesn't quite make sense. Why hold the mamodo battle during the tenth month of every 10 mamodo years when you can just do it when exactly ten years pass?"

"Well, I see you noticed a little problem in the pattern." Rifenno smirked, as if to applaud Alex's intellect.

"Problem?" Alex raised an eyebrow, as his question was finally being answered.

"There was a mamodo battle ten of your years ago." Rifenno closed his eyes in thought. Alex thought he almost looked sad.

"Then why are you holding another one only ten Earth years later?"

"… because our king was murdered."

Alex's eyes widened hearing the distressing news, feeling badly for bringing the whole thing up. "He was murdered?"

"Yes, he was murdered. Found on the floor in front of the throne, several pierce wounds through his chest and according to a surgery preformed later, his heart had been ripped right out of his body. No culprit was ever found."

"… That… sounds rather painful."

"It was a big blow to the mamodo world. No king had ever been killed before, until now. The king died five human years ago, and it took the mamodo elders four human years to decide to host another mamodo battle, with authority from the mamodo queen, Tio. Then they spent one more human year preparing."

"Mamodo elders? Mamodo queen?"

"The Mamodo elders keep watch over the Mamodian scriptures, where the king can turn to when he makes decisions so that they abide by the scriptures. The queen is the lover of the Mamodo King, who marries into the right of the lower throne, so she's sorta like a second-in-command king, who holds the throne when the king passes – or in this case, murdered. That's why she authorized this new mamodo battle."

"You're well educated, Rif."

"I learn what I have to succeed in the mamodo battle." Rifenno heaved the basket of laundry off his chest onto the floor, where it spilled out, making a little mess, as Rifenno threw himself back into slumber on Alex's bed.

"Wait, one thing, just a quick question." Alex hunched over in his chair, trying to get Rifenno's attention before he fell asleep again. Rifenno groaned and rolled over.

"What, what, I wanna sleep, damn it."

"What was the name of the king who was murdered?"

"His name was Gash Bell, son of the former king, holder of the Bao. Some called him Zatch Bell." Rifenno told him, as he rolled back over into sleep. Alex turned back to his desk, but was now more focused on thing Rifenno had told him than on his Physics homework.

"Gash Bell… son of the former king… holder of the Bao… Bao?" Alex thought to himself. Maybe he would have Rifenno tell him more, after he had gotten his sleep. "Bao… what the heck is Bao?"

Suddenly, Alex heard a loud noise against his window, banging into it. Alex whipped his head to face it in surprise, hurting his neck in the process, but finding Dusk, limbs extended to fit himself in the window frame, pressed up against his bedroom window, grinning in a rather creepy manner. "What the hell, Dusk?! Why are you in my window?" Alex yelled, startled to find him there.

"I heard this was where you lived from Joe, so I thought I'd come visit." Smiled Dusk, as he scratched against the edge of the window, trying to open the window from the outside and not succeeding.

Alex grabbed the edge of the window and dragged it open, causing Dusk to lose his stability being held inside the window frame, making him fall down into the flower bed below, crushing his mother's efforts from her difficult gardening work, but Alex tried to overlook that. "Just come in through the front door; I can't imagine that you little mamodo things don't understand the concept of doors."

"Fine, fine, front door. Sheesh…" Dusk griped, as he wondered around from the edge of the house to the front door, which Alex opened quickly as he arrived. "Is Rif here?"

"Rifenno's sleeping. You should probably leave him alone, you know he does—" Alex tried to tell him, but Dusk, being carefree and stupid, went into the house on his own accord, hopping up the stairs on two feet and turning into Alex's room, leaving Alex on the porch, clutching the doorknob tightly as he was still questioning what had just happened. "These kids are so weird…" Alex sighed, as he heard yelling coming from upstairs.

"DUSK, GET THE HELL OUT, I'M TRYING TO SLEEP HERE!!" Yelled Rifenno, as he awoke abruptly from his slumber, grabbing Dusk by the head and tossing him down the stairs as if he was a bowling ball, sending him rolling swiftly out the front door, leaving Alex to slowly close at as he made his departure.

"And to think he was just being so serious and… intelligent. How strange." Alex pondered his new partner's mood swings carefully, as so not to fall victim to them himself. He took a quick look up the stairs and found Rifenno had already retreated to his bed. "I don't think I'll ever understand him completely… but I sorta like him."

--Elsewhere…--

"I sense something. There's a mamodo here. Several, in fact." Spoke a young woman, standing in the middle of a street, with a much taller man behind her. "This must be the MCA, the Mamodo Convergence Area."

The young woman had very beautiful blonde hair, tinted orange around the edges. On her head was a tiara, decorated with various colourful jewels, and a single blue jewel embedded in her forehead. She wore a choker around her neck, also fastened together with a large sky blue jewel. She wore a magnificent blue dress that bent around her arms, with a large yellow ribbon tied around her waist in a kimono-like fashion. The bottom edge of her dress was, indeed, fashioned with jewels of bright and flashy colors. She wore bright red high heel shoes and a ring on both her index fingers.

The older man behind her, in contrast, looked as if he struggled to make ends meet. His coat was tattered and old, his shoes had holes where his toes came out, and his pants were patched in several places, and wore a dirty baseball hat over his head. His hair was messy and ruffled, and had stern facial hair over his chin and around his cheeks.

"Can you figure out which one is… the weakest?" The older man said, coughing to clear his throat in between his words.

"Yes… let me see… no… no… maybe… no…" She thought aloud, as she concentrated her mind; the jewel embedded in her forehead began to glow in an eerie sense. "There. That one is the weakest in the whole city."

"Then let's get going… Mirudio." Said the young man, coughing more, as if he was sick. The pair of them began to walk off the street and into the bustling crowd of the city.


	10. My Loneliness

Chapter 10: My Loneliness

**Chapter 10: My Loneliness**

The day was cloudy and dark. Blue sky was non-existent, and grey clouds and howling winds filled the air. A small young girl was sitting at the top of a large hill, underneath a well-grown tree. She held her head in confusion and in fear. She wore a dark cherry red tank top, stained in places with an even darker red. One of the straps dangled around her arm, the other well supported on her shoulder. Her midriff was visible from her clothing. She wore a long, also dark cherry red, skirt, which flowed all the way down to her ankles. She wore bands of fabric around her ankles, her wrists and her neck. Everything she wore was lined with red lace. Her feet were bare and muddy.

"T-This place… what is this place?" She whispered to herself, shaking. "This place is horrible… I-I hate this place, I want to go home!"

The girl began to cry, and the sky began to cry as well. Her clothes quickly became wet, but the stains did not wash out. She clutched her head tight, scared and alone. The only thought running through her mind was the vision she had seen when she had arrived…

An Hour Earlier…

"Wow… this world is amazing! There's so much life, and color in this world, just like ours…" Spoke the girl, admiring the beauty around her. She twirled a little in excitement, and sang a special song to herself, the words in a different, almost gibberish language. "It's so pretty and—"

Her words were cut off by something she had seen. A man, tied to a tree, with three other men around him. She stood behind a different tree nearby, watching the group and listening to them carefully. The three men were all of different heights, holding different objects in their right hands and holding different coloured books under their left arms.

"So, you think you can get away with trying to tell our secret, do you?" Spoke the smallest of the three men, smacking a baseball bat across the palm of his hand, grinning menacingly.

"No! I don't know what you're talking about!" He pleaded, but was struck in the face by the baseball bat with great force, causing bleeding in his mouth and nose, which dribbled out on his face.

"You see… our plans are in jeopardy because of you, and we have to make sure you won't be snitching on us." Said the second and middle-sized man, wielding a short, silver knife.

"But I don't know what's going on! I was just looking for someone; I'm not trying to spy on anything!" Cried the roped man, confused and afraid. The man rose his hand up and stabbed the knife into his right arm, dragging it through and tearing his whole arm open, with blood pouring out almost endlessly. The man began to cry and scream, and the girl behind the tree's eyes shrunk in terror.

"We don't need to do anymore, just promise that you'll keep your mouth shut… or I'll have to kill you." Spoke the third, and biggest of all the men, in the deepest voice of them all.

"Please stop… I have a wife… a-and children and they need me…" He cried, barely able to speak from the pain.

"Then promise us you'll keep quiet…"

"But… I don't even know what I'm being quiet about! I didn't see anything! I just—" The man tied up kept pleading and pleading, his face awash in tears and blood. He kept begging and begging, but he suddenly came to an abrupt stop when the third man had driven a second knife into his chest, right where his heart was. His body stopped moving, but blood kept pouring from his arm, and now from his fresh chest wound, as well as his mouth beginning to spew blood out as if he was vomiting.

"Well, dead men tell no tales… let's dispose of this body." The smallest of the three said, and the other two were in agreement. They untied his body, which collapsed across the ground in a large red puddle of his own blood. The girl behind the tree was horrified, and began to run as fast as her legs could carry her. The largest of the three men heard the rustling of the grass beneath her feet, and turned his head urgently.

"Someone's seen us! Go find whoever heard us and kill them too!" He ordered, and the other two men were off and chasing after the little girl in the maze that made up the forest around them.

The girl kept running, weaving through the trees and breathing hard, trying to make as little noise as she could that would attract their attention. She fell to her knees several times as she ran, making her dress dirty with mud, but she got up fast and kept running. The further she ran, the closer her pursuers became. She heard them yelling at her to stop and give up, but she kept running.

Just as she thought she had made it to safety, her foot was snagged on the root of a nearby tree, sending her to the ground and covering her whole body in mud. The men drew closer and closer as she tried to pick herself up, but she was too late, as a cold hand gripped her by the leg and picked her up in the air as she dangled upside-down.

"Well, well, a little girl was spying on us." Smirked the shorter of the two men, shaking her back and forth in the air. The girl's face became pale, her eyes small as she knew her life was about to end.

"Little girls shouldn't be meddling in the affairs of big people… or else they get hurt." Spoke the other man, holding the knife against her ankle and dug it in, just starting to slice her entire leg open. Blood began to pour out onto her top and stained it, even against its dark red color. The girl screamed out and shook herself free from the short man's grip, fell to the ground and began running. The two men began to give chase again immediately, but were tripped up by the same root that had caused the girl to fall.

The girl ran, and ran, and ran until she had finally escaped the confines of the forest. She ran to the top of a hill, and hid behind a tree that rested atop it, where she sat now.

End Flashback

"This world is horrible… these people are horrible… I want to go home, where it's safe!" She began to cry loudly, and then came to an abrupt stop when she heard the rustling of footsteps in the grass. She knew it had to be the men chasing her earlier. She knew there was nothing she could do now. She stayed silent, hoping they would pass by her without notice. The footsteps drew closer, and closer, until the footsteps stopped beside her, and felt something poke against her shoulder. She closed her eyes tight, and remained silent. It poked her again.

"It isn't… sharp." She thought to herself, as she opened her right eye, to see someone completely different, someone she had never seen, who wasn't one of the men chasing him. He was a bit younger than them; he looked around the age of 15. He had black hair, a large strand covering his right eye. He wore black clothing, with red and black striped sleeves that seemed more like they were sewn onto the short sleeves of the main shirt. He wore jeans, which were a bit darker than the usual navy blue color, but were still blue. He wore simple black and white sneakers with red laces. He had piercing on various places on his face, and had chains dangling from several places on his clothing.

"Is something wrong, kid?" The boy said to the girl, huddled down beside her.

"… a-are… you going to kill me?" The girl stammered, shivering from the cold rain and her own fear of dying.

"Uhhhhh… no, I don't think so." Replied the boy, in a rather dark, almost sarcastic tone.

"Then… then what are you going to do?" She still shivered, but her stammering had stopped.

"Well, I usually sit here. But why do you think I'm going to kill you?"

"There were… these, these humans, they were trying to kill me, and, and, I d-don't know why, and I'm scared, and I want to go home, I hate this stupid world!" She began to break into tears again, stammering in her sadness and sobbing loudly.

"Well, we have something in common then."

"W-what do you mean?" She stopped crying and looked up curiously.

"I hate this world too. This world is a miserable place." The boy sat down beside him and stared up into the crying sky.

"You… hate this world too?"

"Yes… human beings are miserable people." The boy tucked his head into his knees, sighing softly, but his groans were covered up by the downpour. "They're all… horrible. They kill, they steal, and they betray… they're the worst beings on this whole planet."

"They… they do those things?"

"Without remorse. They only care about themselves, and they'll do anything they can to get what they want."

"… Humans… are horrible people…" The girl inspected her leg, where the bleeding had already stopped.

"I come here to get away from it all. This is a special place, where no one goes but me. That's why I was surprised to see you."

"… Say, can I… ask you something?" The girl asked nervously, but in a completely different tone of voice, as if she was a completely new person.

"Sure." He turned his head a bit to make eye contact with her.

"Can you read this book?"


	11. Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend

Chapter 11: Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend

**Chapter 11: Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend**

It was another day at school for the mamodo and book keepers. Joe was busy at work in class, bored to death in his reading, while Dusk was struggling to escape the evil wrath of his self-proclaimed girlfriend. Joe often heard the faint screaming of his new partner from the 'Mamodo Room', but luckily, it was muffled enough that no one else heard it or thought much of it, but it often distracted him from his reading.

Soon enough, though, the day had come to a close with the mighty ringing of the school bell. Joe quickly picked up his things, and set out to the mamodo room.

He pulled the door open with one hand, only to find his mamodo tied up with silver, metal chains, lying on the ground and being smothered with affection by his new girlfriend. Rifenno, Edward and Lily (the flower girl) had already been taken home for the day, as Joe had spent 15 minutes talking to his teacher after class.

"Amanda… please get off of Dusk, he needs to come home with me…" Joe sighed, realizing there was little hope that he would get his partner free.

"But we're playing! Can't you come back later?" Amanda pleaded, holding Dusk tightly.

"What are you playing that's so important?" Joe asked, still with a tone in his voice of already decided defeat.

"We're playing husband and wife. I'm the wife, and he's my husband." She smiled, still holding tightly to Dusk.

"I didn't agree to this, I want a divorce!" Dusk shook wildly to try and free himself, but, once again, finding himself unsuccessful.

"Aww, aren't you just cute!! I love you so much, Duskie-poo!" Amanda kept her arms around her 'husband', suffocating him gently through her chains. Joe sighed again, and grabbed the chain-ridden Dusk from her arms, and slinged him over his shoulder by his feet, so he dangled upside-down. He left silently, but his exit was made loud by the protesting of Amanda, kicking her feet and screaming while being dragged across the floor holding onto Joe's pants.

"You two can play lovey-dovey tomorrow. Just let us go home…" Joe kicked his foot back and snapped Amanda's hands from his pants, after which she got up, dusted herself off, and ran off smiling, as if she had gotten exactly what she wanted. Joe left the school and headed off for his home, with Dusk still pulled over his shoulder, not protesting as he did save him from Amanda.

"Can you get these chains off me? I hate not being able to move my arms… feels weird." Dusk asked, trying to sound as nice as he could so Joe would return the favour.

"When we get home, Dusk." Joe replied, still feeling worn out.

"But… but, I really need to move my arms. Now."

"When we get home!"

"AHH! FREAKING OUT, FREAKING OUT, NEED TO MOVE MY ARMS!! LEMME GO, LEMME GO!" Dusk started yelling, shaking wildly and pulling himself from Joe's grip, falling onto the pavement and writhing around wildly as if he was having a seizure.

"Alright, alright! I'll get it off of you..." Joe sighed once more, hoisting his little friend upright, knelt down and tried to find a place on the chains where he could loosen it up. "Geez, you kids are such a pain."

"Just hurry up, I wanna get home too. I'm freakin' hungry!" Dusk kept complaining, as if he had a never-ending source of things to whine about.

"Shut up, and let me work…" Joe kept inspecting the chains, when he heard a voice from behind him.

"Kofaru." Said a grizzly voice, as if the person talking had a sore throat. Joe turned his head to see who was there, but was immediately struck by a fast moving, strong projectile before he could see who was speaking, knocking him up into the air a little bit and sending him sliding across the pavement a bit further back, falling on his stomach. Dusk, however, was sent flying into the air, spinning rapidly in flips and twists, and landed not far from Joe, landing perfectly upright.

"Oh yeah, ten points for the landing!" Dusk exclaimed excitedly. Joe, on the other hand, had been hurt and saw a little blood rubbed into the pavement. He felt the cuts on his face, and flinched a little as his finger laid across them. Joe quickly whipped his head back to see his attacker.

Behind him were a scruffy man, in his late 30s, and a small little girl, dressed in a princess outfit decorated with jewels. The older man held a glowing saffron book, and Joe quickly put the pieces together.

"Dusk, it's another mamodo! We have to fight back!" Joe exclaimed, as he ran behind Dusk for cover, just like his opponent was.

"Uh, kinda tied up here at the moment. Can you get these off of me first?" Dusk complained, not particularly caring about his moderately injured book keeper.

"Hah! I see you two aren't very prepared for a battle… this will be too easy." Cackled the little girl, holding the back of her hand against her cheek. "Leo, another spell! Shoot them down!" The older man held the book close to his face and read directly from its texts.

"Right, Mirudio…" He groaned, and held the book tight as it shone brightly. "Kofaru!" He shouted, as a second crystal, about the size of a baseball or so, was launched from her hands at Dusk and Joe. Joe quickly weaved out of the way as he reached into his bag to retrieve his own book. Dusk, still tied up, managed to flop over onto his face, but in doing so was able to dodge the crystal, as it hurled through the air behind them, slowing in speed until it hit the ground and shattered into glitter.

Joe quickly ran back to his partner and put him right-side up again, and flipped the lime-green book open to his own spell page. "Okay… Alex said that in order for this to work, I gotta say whatever's in here with all my soul!" Joe quickly halted the moving of the pages as he came to the page with glowing text, and held the book tight. "MIGISU!"

Dusk's eyes rolled back into his head, giving a blank stare, as his mouth popped open, and a ball of light began to gather in front of his face, then suddenly, a beam of dark blue light shot from his mouth, directly at his opponent, although simultaneously, the force of his own attack sent him backward, falling on his backside.

The attack shot straight and true, right at Leo and Mirudio, but with enough time to see it coming, they dodged to the side and let the beam continue its travel until it died out.

"Hah! Is that all you two have? More, fire again!" Mirudio took her fighting stance again, knees stretched, one arm pointing out and hand wide open, as her partner spoke a third time.

"Kofaru!"

Another shot of crystal was launched from the palm of her hand, as Joe pulled Dusk from the ground just in time to counter-attack.

"MIGISU!"

Dusk's mouth fired a second beam of dark blue light, firing perfectly straight once again, but Dusk didn't fall over this time, as Joe was supporting him with one hand as he held the book in the other.

The crystal collided head on with the beam of light, but instead of struggling against one another, the beam went right through into the crystal, where it reflected off in a multitude of different directions, hitting the fences of nearby houses, the pavement and some shooting off into the sky before dying out. However, one beam continued straight for Mirudio, and struck her in the chest, knocking her backwards and taking the wind from her chest, as she wheezed from the ground. Mirudio's crystal, however, kept flying and struck Dusk directly in the face, where it pushed him and Joe backwards along the ground, drilling into Dusk's head before slowing down and stopping, where it fell into the ground and shattered once more, into sparkling powder.

"Oowwww… t-that hurt…" Dusk grunted, his right eye closed in pain as he tried to bare it, still trying to balance. Mirudio had already gotten back to her feet, and she was very displeased on the outcome of the last confrontation of attacks.

"How DARE you strike me! Do you not know who I am?! I am Mirudio, and I am a princess!!" She shouted, her eyes glaring viciously, her hands clenched in a fist, and her tiara beginning to slip from her hair.

"Stuff it, Goldilocks…" Dusk grumbled, still wincing a little bit.

"HOW DARE YOU!!" She screamed, as she took her battle stance again and called loudly for her partner. "Leo, end him NOW!" Leo took the book again, but the book began to shine extremely bright, much brighter than it had been in its previous attacks.

"Ganzu Kofaru!" He shouted, as Mirudio launched an entire group of crystals, all still the same size, at Dusk and Joe. Joe quickly reacted again, hoping that something would save them.

"Migisu!" He shouted, as another beam of light poured from Dusk's mouth, shooting for the crystal leading the pack. It went right to its core and shot of in a large variety of different directions once again, flying into the ground, the walls and the sky.

But some shots instead travelled into other crystals, where they redirected into groups of light again, and again, and again, until hundreds of beams of light were bouncing everywhere, and Mirudio was hit by a large number of them, one to her left arm, two to her right arm, two to the head and four to her torso. Her dress was torn in the places where the light made contact with, and she was flung a great distance until she made contact with the ground again, tumbling and rolling until coming to a complete stop at a face-down position.

The fired crystal group still went forwards and struck the chains that bound Dusk in several places, breaking them and shielding the attack. Many of the crystals simply flew past them, or hit walls as they flew and broke. Dusk was now able to move himself, and quickly took aim at the now weakened Mirudio. Leo had already run back and was trying to support her up; she was badly hurt and barely able to stand without assistance. Joe clutched his book tight, the spine supported over his arm, and Joe gave a mighty cry.

"MIIIGIIISUUU!!" Beams of light swarmed in from all around, gathering in the ball of energy just resting in front of Dusk's mouth until it swelled to the size of Dusk's head, and an incredible beam of dark blue light burst forth, and completely engulfed Leo and Mirudio with its power. The beam came to a stop, and Leo was on the ground with his partner beside him. Their saffron book was engulfed in blue flames, and Mirudio began to disappear into the air with little sparkles around her dissolving into the sky.

Mirudio pulled her head up just enough to see that her book was burning. She looked sad, but had no strength of her own to try and put out the fires. She simply let her face hit the ground and disappear. There was a faint whimpering sound, as if she was crying. The last corner of the book burned up, and Mirudio vanished, and returned to the mamodo world. Her book keeper lay motionless. He was not dead, just exhausted from their battle. Joe quickly ran to him and propped him up against a nearby lamppost and hoped that he would be okay. Joe and Dusk quickly left together, and made for home, which was very close by. Their walk was silent, as Dusk was half-injured and Joe was stunned by the recent events.

They arrived, took their shoes off at the front door, and Dusk sat down at the kitchen table, while Joe fetched a little food for himself and his partner. He noticed that his face was scratched up, and Dusk's was as well. He decided he would bathe that night.

"That was… quite something, Dusk." Joe told his mamodo partner, drinking a can of soda while sliding Dusk a spare tub of ice cream that Joe had bought for him previously. Dusk grabbed it and devoured it happily, yet almost in a scary way.

"Yeah… well, you'd better get used to it, 'cause there's gonna be tons more of this just yet." Dusk said in between spoonfuls of chocolate ice cream.

"I'll try… but it'll take some time to adjust." Joe sighed, and simply relaxed. Dusk quickly cleaned out the entire tub and started licking the insides. The two of them slept rather well that night.

But, during the night, Joe hadn't been awake to see his book begin to shine a bright lime green…


	12. Fangirl Paradise

Chapter 11: Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend

**Chapter 12: Fangirl Paradise**

The school bell rang, and school was over for the day once again. Alex and Joe had already hurried off on their own, and with Dusk not around, Amanda left on her own. The last two of them, Edward and Lily, still resided in the room peacefully, waiting for their owners. Lily's owner was busy with the school band, but Edward had no idea where his owner was, but he never really cared if she was there or not. But, soon enough, the two of them showed up together, likely meaning that they were together wherever they were.

"Edward!" DJ ran into the room and scooped up her mamodo and hugged it tightly, almost suffocating him. He flailed his arms wildly around to try and signal to her that her signs of affection were threatening his life.

Victoria knelt down to her mamodo's level and spoke softly to her. "Hey, Lily. Have a good day?" Victoria was much taller than DJ was, had short brown hair the looked like it had been dyed several times, and a dark jacket and light colour jeans.

"Y-y-yeah… yeah, I-I had a good day, it was a good day." Lily was very nervous and stammered a lot. Even though she knew her book keeper was a good person, Lily had a fear of her. Her book keeper wore a stern looking face, giving her the idea that she had to behave perfectly or otherwise Victoria would lash out at her. She bowed respectively, which confused Victoria.

"You don't have to be so formal with me, it's okay. We're friends, right?" Victoria tilted her head in a confused manner, unable to understand why she was so timid.

"A-alright…" She replied, but bowed again, contradicting herself. Vickie just sighed nicely, and grabbed her mamodo by her sides and lifted her up over her head and onto her shoulders. Even though she was scared of Victoria, she tried her hardest to please her.

"Let me down, you devil!" Edward wheezed out as his lungs were constricted, which DJ responded appropriately too and lessened her grip, but still held onto him. "Stop doing that! That really hurts!"

"But you're just so cute… you're a little chibi Edward! I have the best mamodo kid ever!" DJ smiled, and nuzzled her head into Edward's, making him feel a bit uncomfortable, but he couldn't say that he didn't enjoy the attention when it didn't kill him.

The two took off from school and went to DJ's house, just behind the mall the school was located next to. Edward took off for the couch as soon as the door was open, but DJ grabbed him by the collar before he got too far.

"Take your boots off, Ed. They're muddy." DJ scolded him as if she was his mother, pointing down on his boots that were dripping pieces of mud and dirt onto the threshold of the front door.

"Okay, okay, sheesh…" Ed kicked his boots off at the closet door, where they bounced off and made a bit of a mess on both the door and the mat everyone kept their shoes on.

"Edward!" DJ yelled at him.

"What?! I took my shoes off just like you asked." Edward yelled right back.

"But you got the door all dirty!"

"I was only doing what you told me!"

"You are so frustrating!"

"You're the pain in the ass!"

The two kept bickering and bickering until Victoria stepped in. "Knock it off, just clean it up and it's done with." She seemed very cool and calm, but still a little stern and annoyed.

"Okay, we'll clean it up. And then can we watch videos, Vickie?" DJ asked, hoping for a yes.

"Yes, I don't have any homework today." Victoria told her, and DJ was pleased, giving out a little fangirl-like squeal.

DJ and Edward quickly took the mess away with a simple cloth, Edward retreated to the couch, and DJ, Vickie and Lily went for her computer, with Lily sitting in Vickie's lap.

The three of them watched videos of old television shows they watched, music videos, parodies, whatever they saw that caught their interest, they watched it. Edward simply counted sheep silently, and snored occasionally when he took breaths in and out.

"Hey, DJ… what color is your book?" Vickie asked, turning to face her, while Lily's eyes were glued to the screen, fascinated by the technology. "Mine is this kinda foresty green color." She said, as she pulled her own book from her school bag.

"Book? What book?" DJ asked, not sure what book she was referring to, not recognizing the one Vickie had either. "Textbook? Manga?"

"No, no, your mamodo's book. It should be like this one." Vickie waved her book back and forth, not sure if she noticed it at all.

"I never got anything like that." DJ tilted her head, confused. Vickie was confused as well, but for a different reason.

"B-but, all mamodo are supposed to have a book… o-otherwise, you're not technically in the mamodo battle…" Lily commented, totalling the number of confused people in the room to three, leaving only Edward lacking bewilderment. DJ quickly pointed her head in the direction of her own mamodo, wondering why he hadn't said anything.

"Edward, where's _your_ book?" DJ asked him menacingly, glaring to make things that much more frightful.

"I thought you had it! Didn't you pick it up when I fell off the roof?" Edward responded. DJ thought back, to when she had found Edward sitting on top of the roof of her house, as that was where he 'spawned', as he called it, and DJ had startled him by yelling and caused him to tumble off the roof. She didn't remember anything about a book.

"… no, I didn't see anything that looked like a book." DJ shook her head, pausing her video in the meantime so she wouldn't miss much of it.

"Maybe it's still on the roof?" Vickie suggested, pointing a finger up into the air.

"Maybe, let's go see." DJ decided, and she, Vickie and Lily all went out. Edward was following, but he was lazing about and following at a slug's place. DJ climbed up a little on a strong tree on her yard, to get a better view of the roof, and sure enough, a crimson-colour book lay on the roof, held back by a shingle.

"Yeah, it's up there. How do we get it down?" Questioned DJ, as she got down from the tree, picked up a rock and hurled it blindly up onto the roof, but it simply bounced off and hit the ground again with a loud crack, startling Lily and causing her to jump behind Vickie, clinging to her pant leg as she snivelled. DJ picked up the same rock and threw it again, but it didn't come back. DJ scowled in disappointment and annoyance. Edward finally arrived out of the front door, still drifting slowly along, like he was half-asleep.

"So, is it up there?" Edward groaned, his eyes still shut.

"Yes, it is, but we can't get it down." Vickie replied, thinking to herself.

"Oh! Got an idea." DJ perked up, smiling.

"What would that be?" Vickie groaned, a little worried at what she had in mind.

"This!" DJ ran forward a bit, grabbed her own mamodo who had quickly woken up after being grasped, and hurled him up into the air, landing him onto the roof with a loud thud, knocking a pair of shingles loose, which tumbled down the roof but stopped before falling off. Edward picked his head up and groaned more, feeling in pain from landing hard on a rough and uneven surface. He put a hand out to try and pick himself up, and found his hand meeting the spine of his magic book.

"Hey, found it!" Edward exclaimed, standing up and holding the book up high proudly, forgetting about the pain he had just felt. He had his feet firmly planted, so he didn't slide off.

"Great! Now get down." DJ growled, wanting to get her new book and see what it was like for herself. Edward peered over the edge of the roof, and felt a little nervous about the height, especially for his own height.

"Uhhhh… is there an easier way to get down?" Edward said nervously, looking around for something that would help.

"Oh, just jump… it's not very far." DJ complained, arms crossed in an impatient manner.

"That's easy for you to say!" Edward clung to the side of the roof, hanging on for dear life.

"I'll catch you. Just jump." DJ sighed, getting the urge to start throwing rocks at him to dislodge him from the roof.

"Okay, okay… I'll throw the book down first." Edward gave the book a light toss and let it fall to the ground with a thump, after which DJ picked it up and began turning pages excitedly; trying to find something of significance, but all she found was a strange blue text of another language.

"I can't read anything in this book! What's so important about this?" DJ kept flipping, and shook the book to see if anything would fall out.

"Okay, here I come!" Edward leapt rather gracefully from the roof of the house, descending fast, but since DJ's hands were currently occupied by the book, he fell straight into the book's edge, slipped back and fell onto the ground in a big mess, lying on his back and wincing in pain. "Ow… ow… m-my face…my back… it hurts…"

"Hey, here's something!" DJ had stopped on a page that had red text instead of the usual blue text that made up most of the book. DJ took a step back, to make a dramatic pose for the first time she would read her spell book. "Here we go… NASIIN!"

Edward's eyes rolled back into his head swiftly, leaving him with a blank, almost creepy expression. His jaw snapped open, and a great light came forth, shooting up into the air above him but not reaching much taller than DJ's house in front of them. Then, a large metal hand crawled out from the light, followed by another, and then the large body they were attached to.

The large suit of armour was colour a slightly pale blue, spiked across the forehead and shoulders, wore a simple faded blue loincloth. The helmet of the armour gave a rather blank expression, but seemed intimidating nonetheless. Once the whole thing had emerged, the light came to a stop, and the armour fell onto Edward, crushing him and making him scream in pain and enragement.

"OH WOW!" Vickie ran up and hugged the armour, which was so big that her arms couldn't even get half-way around him, even with her arms being rather long already. "It's Alphonse! This is so cool!" Vickie seemed over-excited by the armour, which confused her own mamodo and frightened her at the same time; Lily wasn't used to seeing her that happy.

"Cool! I have a mamodo based off of FMA!" DJ squealed excitedly, flailing her book around and losing the page where she had found the decipherable words. She seemed not to notice that her mamodo was in great pain, being flattened under the wait of the large iron body. "My kid is so awesome!"

"Al, get off of me, you big lummox!" Edward wheezed out, his breath almost completely exhausted.

"Oh, sorry, brother…" The armour pulled itself off of Edward, and helped him get up by lifting him to his feet. His voice sounded like that of a young boy, but it echoed throughout the armour, altering the real sound of his voice. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine…" Edward dusted his clothes off, covered in a little bit of dust and dirt. "Just try and look where you land, next time."

Vickie and DJ were both admiring Al's armoured body, with glistening eyes and more happy squeals. Al was confused by their reaction, and took his arm back to cover his face, in fear that they might attack him.

"W-who are these people, what are they doing?" Al asked, with Vickie now pulling herself up onto his shoulders and DJ tugging on his loincloth. "H-hey, stop that!"

"Oh, these girls know you. You're kinda famous, Al. Some girls just love the sensitive type, I guess." Ed sighed, putting his arms up and out in a rather happy little shrug of his arms.

"Me? Famous? I had no idea." Al responded, as Vickie now inspected his helmet, and DJ picked up his right arm and watched it with fascination as if it would do something amazing. "Just… make them stop; I'm not comfortable with this."

"Nah, you gotta deal with your own fangirls, I'm gonna go back inside now." Edward walked back into the house, still flinching a little in pain as he used the parts of his body that had sustained injury, but still managed to get back inside without much trouble, and flopped onto the couch and rested.

"Big brother!" Al put an arm out, pleading for his assistance, as Vickie removed his helmet and climbed inside of his hollow armour to examined the inside, especially the strange circle around the collar, looking like a pentagram written in blood, while DJ had climbed up the side of his other arm and was peeking down inside to see what Vickie was seeing. "Help me; they're doing bad things to me!"

But then, Al's body became transparent, and then vanished into thin air just as fast, causing both Vickie and DJ to fall to the ground in surprise now that nothing was there to support them. The two girls were disappointed that he had left, but quickly came over it and retreated back into the house. Lily quickly crawled out from behind the tree she had been hiding behind and fled back into the house, and she returned to Vickie's lap, but was even more nervous than she had been earlier.

The three girls watched videos until late, when Vickie and Lily turned in for the night and went home. Edward spent most of his time sleeping on the couch, recovering from his injuries. DJ heard him yelp whenever he felt the pain come back, but didn't really know what she could do to assist, so she simply laid a blanket over him, to keep him warm that night.

"Huh? What's this for?" Edward asked, holding the blanket up.

"For sleeping with. It'll keep you warm." DJ smiled, trying to cheer him up, relatively assured that he knew fully well what a blanket was.

"Oh… thanks." Edward looked up at his owner, a little surprised by her kindness.

"No problem. Sleep well." She said, and she left for her own bedroom for the night. Edward laid awake for about a half an hour that night before falling asleep, thinking to himself.

"That girl… she's not so bad." He thought silently. "She's… a little erratic, but she's still got a good heart, I guess. Maybe things will go better than I thought."

And with that last thought, Edward drifted off to sleep for the night, dreaming of his erratic, yet nice, book keeper.


End file.
